By Charles Brun: David Avanesyan is ready to give heavily hyped Conor Benn a title shot at his EBU welterweight belt whenever he’s ready, and he’ll take that fight ‘100 percent,’ according to his manager Neil Marsh.
This would be a considerable step up in class for the 24-year-old Benn from the opposition he’s been facing lately, and it’s questionable whether he’ll be willing to take the risk.
After Benn’s recent unimpressive 10 round unanimous decision win over Adrian Granados last Saturday night in Leeds, he said he was interested in going for the lower hanging fruit on the tree.
Benn called out these fighters:
- Adrien Broner
- Robert ‘The Ghost’ Guerrero
- Victor Ortiz
- Abel Ramos
Benn’s promoter Eddie Hearn prefers that he face Amir Khan next, but that fight is undoable unless they throw massive money at him that he couldn’t possibly refuse.
For Hearn to entice Khan to take the fight with Benn, he’ll probably need to give him the kind of dough that he made for his PPV fights against Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford.
That’s not going to happen, though, so Hearn can forget about Khan because he’s out of his price range. If Benn were a huge star already, it wouldn’t be a big deal meeting Khan’s asking price, but unfortunately, he’s not.
For Hearn to hurry up the process of turning Benn into a household name in the UK and worldwide, he’s going to need to throw him into the deep end of the pool by matching him against sharks like Avanesyan, Virgil Ortiz Jr., Jaron Ennis, Shawn Porter, and Keith Thurman.
“David [Avanesyan] a is a true hard man, he fights anyone. If I say, ‘You want to fight Conor Benn? Yes!'” said Neil Marsh to Sky Sports.
“David is levels above him [Benn]. Conor is getting closer, but David is a class above at the moment. It’s not a dangerous fight. Of course, he’d fight Conor Benn, 100 percent.”
“I think he’s come a long way. I just think that there are certain people hyping him up,” said Marsh about Benn.
Obviously, Eddie Hearn is doing the vast majority of the hyping up of Benn, as he should be as his promoter. But if you listen carefully to what Hearn says, he’s not mentioning wanting to put Benn in with any live bodies that could potentially the gravy train.
Benn is like a money-making machine due to him being the son of the famous Nigel Benn, and it doesn’t matter that his talent is nowhere near his dad’s level. British boxing fans want to see Conor fight, hoping that he’ll be as good as Nigel one day.
Hearn isn’t going to let Benn fight someone like Avanesyan or the aforementioned Jaron Ennis and Virgil Ortiz Jr because he’s still too vulnerable. Benn has a bad habit of telegraphing his power punches, and he basically loads up on EVERYTHING he throws.
That bad habit that Benn has will eventually get him knocked out once Hearn takes the training wheels off him. But by that time, Benn will have already brought in massive amounts of money fighting played-out fighters like Broner, Victor Ortiz, and Robert Guerrero.
“I don’t even think a world title will entice him [Benn]. They just wouldn’t be interested in it,” said Marsh.
Of course, it doesn’t matter if someone has a world title. Benn isn’t going to fight any of the champions right now because his popularity would drop off the side of a map if he were to take on someone like Terence Crawford or Errol Spence Jr., as he would likely get knocked out and would be exposed.
Anyway, it’s not up to Benn because he’s not the one that picks his opponents. Hearn is guiding Benn, and he’s not crazy enough to ruin his popularity by letting him fight for a world title against Crawford or Spence Jr.
“David destroyed Josh Kelly. They made a huge error, thinking they had got David Avanesyan at the right time. They got the most hungry David Avanesyan ever to be a fighter,” said Marsh.
Avanesyan (27-3-1, 15 KOs) knocked the 2016 Olympian Josh Kelly in six rounds last February in a one-sided affair in London, England.
For Avanesyan’s next fight, he’ll be defending his EBU 147-lb title against Liam Taylor (23-1-1, 11 KOs) on October 2nd at the Wembley Arena in London.